The best way to move a warehouse… one trailer at a time.

Home > The best way to move a warehouse… one trailer at a time.

Moving day was just the tip of the iceberg for one organization that supplies important health-related publications to hundreds of thousands of people each year.

Listening to the big challenge

How many tractor trailers does it take to move a warehouse loaded with well over 30+ million pamphlets, brochures, posters, multi-media materials and other consumer-related publications? A lot.

Actually, it took over 100 truckloads and a little longer than a month to relocate thousands of pallets from a large metropolitan-area storage facility on the east coast to NPC’s value-priced and technically-sound 100,000-plus square foot fulfillment and distribution warehouse in central Pennsylvania.

“It’s a challenge to move a warehouse, but we have very good people,” said Michael Bingham, NPC’s Distribution & Fulfillment Manager. “And we wanted to do this in a very short timeframe so it wouldn’t affect our customer’s service level to their clients.”

“It’s a challenge to move a warehouse, but we have very good people, and we wanted to do this in a very short timeframe so it wouldn’t affect our customer’s service level to their clients.”

Michael Bingham
Distribution & Fulfillment Manager

Understanding all of the objectives

As if the sheer volume of materials involved in this warehouse move wasn’t enough, there were a pair of non-negotiable requests (or musts) — one immediate and one a little longer-term — prior to moving this publication and information fulfillment and distribution center:

  1. Complete the large-scale transition without any interruption of service to customers.
  2. Within one year, reduce the warehouse inventory by recycling obsolete publications and controlling re-order points.

First, NPC performed a complete physical inventory of existing materials. After the initial count, the most often-used items were moved first to ensure that these materials were available for public distribution.

Next, NPC began the process of right-sizing the overall inventory by recycling out-of-date publications to achieve a sustainable inventory reduction, saving the organization warehousing and storage fees in the long run, and eliminating any backlog of consumer orders.

Delivering a sustainable solution

In less than two months the move was complete. Orders are now processed daily and shipped all over the country with 99.9% on-time processing, shipping and order-fulfillment accuracy.

“Another reason we needed all materials moved and inventoried as quickly as possible was because our customer had a surge in back orders,” said Michael Bingham, NPC’s Distribution and Fulfillment Manager. He noted that over 4,000 back orders were inherited from a previous vendor and NPC needed to address those first.

A customizable and proprietary Fulfillment Management System (FMS) was utilized to process and ship orders, and manage and replenish the organization’s publication inventory. This system was configured to seamlessly integrate
the organization’s warehouse management and fulfillment databases with NPC’s systems.

NPC performed a detailed evaluation of the organization’s current and historical consumer demand, and the organization’s goal of a 50 percent reduction in size and operation of the warehouse and distribution center was achieved.

“We’ve been able to reduce our customer’s inventory levels and pallet storage, lower their warehousing costs, and remove obsolete materials,” Bingham explained. “Our customer is able to save money in the long run.”

The fulfillment-as-a-service model enables the organization to take advantage of a number of cost savings and operational efficiencies over and above what it had anticipated when the project started just a few months earlier. The new warehouse location in central Pennsylvania provides the benefits of cost-effective storage space, a trained and flexible workforce, a secure building, and easy access to major transportation corridors and hubs in the Northeast.

Fulfillment-on-demand
NPC offers on-demand custom kitting and package fulfillment solutions to help you respond to real-time customer and stakeholder requests for products and information. We’ll provide end-to-end visibility and management of your high-volume merchandise and print materials, reduce order-to-delivery cycles, and cost-effectively distribute everything that needs delivered — to the right person, in the right place, at the right time… on time, every time.

Where do you turn for all your logistics “what if” scenarios?

What can we do for you?

Your ideal solution might not exist. Yet. Contact NPC to learn more.